Comment by flyinglizard

People need purpose. Workplaces provide a very structured, highly managed, perpetual treadmill of purpose. Not purpose in the "self growth" sense, but just something to keep people occupied. "The devil looks for idle hands", and with a large swath of the population* on welfare, there's a good chance he'll find plenty.

[0] that said, population in developed countries is naturally declining so maybe it won't be a problem in the long term either; or maybe, with less need to work, people will be more inclined to raise other people, leading us to both more machines and more humans.